King Woman Debut New Zealand Show Announced For June

Playing their first ever Aotearoa headline event this June at Tāmaki Makaurau's Neck of the Woods, following appearances at Wavyland's 5th birthday party in Sydney and Hobart's prestigious Dark Mofo festival, King Woman is the sonically formidable and lyrically cathartic project helmed by US artist Kristine Esfandiari (Dalmatian, Miserable, NGHTCRWLR, Sugar High). Initially founded by Esfandiari in 2009 as a solo endeavour then later expanded to full band, King Woman's two studio albums to date (both released by globally influential imprint Relapse Records) have encompassed emotionally devastating zones of shoegaze / doom metal / drone, addressing such intense themes as surviving religious fundamentalism and personal trauma. Their 2021 album Celestial Blues was praised by Pitchfork as "a meditation on spiritual warfare, personal rebirth, and paradise lost" — don't dare miss King Woman's live onslaught on 19th June, brought to you by Wavyland...

King Woman
Monday 19th June – Neck of the Woods, Auckland w/ Earth Tongue
Tickets on sale HERE via UTR

Watch the video for 'Morning Star' from King Woman's 2021 album Celestial Blues...

Press release:

Wavyland proudly presents King Woman, their apocalyptic live show making its debut on Australian and New Zealand shores this winter. Beginning as just another alias of Kristine Esfandiari, King Woman is now a four-piece band suffering together through post-religion at the intersection of shoegaze, doom metal and drone. Grappling against the trauma of the institutional church, 2021’s Celestial Blues is a moment of release… falling occasionally into intense chaos.

Kristine Esfandiari’s multi-hyphenate approach to music, performing under the monikers Dalmatian, Sugar High, NGHTCRWLR and Miserable, lends credence to King Woman’s multi-hyphenate sound. Their music a deliberate balance of tension and release, its vicious merging of genre creates a palpable vision of the religious nightmare. Quiet moments of introspection are dismantled with doom sentiments, Esfandiari’s whispers growing in intensity and crescendo. Her lyrics are deeply personal, King Woman acting as a form of catharsis, a tale of rebellion, tragedy and triumph. If 2017’s Created in the Image of Suffering was the apocalypse, Celestial Blues is finding out what’s beyond it. The rapture has come: time to see what’s remained.

Catharsis is at the core of King Woman’s live experience, a moment of introspection and clarity amidst the noise of trauma and suffering. A musical journey, quietness and loudness have equal roles to play, each moment bouncing off one other to create a truly intense experience that demands visceral attention. Every breath sounding like Esfandiari’s last, King Woman dances with the devil this winter – don’t miss out.